Departing for foreign cruises

[SeaNana]

We are frequent Disney cruisers, but only once have cruised to Europe and it was with family. Next year we have two cruises out of the U.S. and would appreciate opinions on going entirely through Disney or doing it on our own. We are seniors and I personally would prefer to let DCL arrange everything.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We are frequent Disney cruisers, but only once have cruised to Europe and it was with family. Next year we have two cruises out of the U.S. and would appreciate opinions on going entirely through Disney or doing it on our own. We are seniors and I personally would prefer to let DCL arrange everything.

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking. Are you taking 2 Disney cruises, and you're asking about doing excursions and such through them?

Or something else?

 

[KashasMom]

Assuming you mean excursions...if you're more comfortable letting Disney do it, then that's the way to go.

 

[DynamicDisneyDuo]

If you are referring to your travel arrangements such as flights, DCL can do that. I'm not how much they can help with any accommodation needs. Have you thought about using a travel agent who speciailizes in cruising in general or DCL specifically?

 

[SeaNana]

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking. Are you taking 2 Disney cruises, and you're asking about doing excursions and such through them?

Or something else?

Sorry - I tried to change the post but the editing didn’t occur (I’m sure it was my fault!). I’m referring to all travel/hotel arrangements. When we did a Med cruise, we made hotel and transfer plans through DCL, but have also made flight plans in previous trips. I know it must be more expensive, but I wonder if the convenience is worth it.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Sorry - I tried to change the post but the editing didn’t occur (I’m sure it was my fault!). I’m referring to all travel/hotel arrangements. When we did a Med cruise, we made hotel and transfer plans through DCL, but have also made flight plans in previous trips. I know it must be more expensive, but I wonder if the convenience is worth it.

Well, when we did our Med/TA B2B a few years ago, we used DCL to book our airline reservations. Generally, booking your own airfare is cheaper booking it directly, but, in that case the difference was only about $100 and it was worth the peace of mind it gave us that, if there were any issues with the plane arriving in a timely manner for us to catch the ship, DCL would assist us in getting to the ship.

We've not done extra days (hotel stays) on any of those cruises, so I can't address that.

 

[mmmears]

Sorry - I tried to change the post but the editing didn’t occur (I’m sure it was my fault!). I’m referring to all travel/hotel arrangements. When we did a Med cruise, we made hotel and transfer plans through DCL, but have also made flight plans in previous trips. I know it must be more expensive, but I wonder if the convenience is worth it.

It's not worth it to me. I like to pick my flights and choose my own hotels and they aren't usually the one or two that Disney offers. If it's easier for you to do it all through DCL and it gives you peace of mind, then I don't see why you shouldn't just book through them.

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

We are frequent Disney cruisers, but only once have cruised to Europe and it was with family. Next year we have two cruises out of the U.S. and would appreciate opinions on going entirely through Disney or doing it on our own. We are seniors and I personally would prefer to let DCL arrange everything.

I've cruised via DCL from American & Canadian ports, and traveled in Europe completely independently, so here's my two cents.

If you prefer DCL to make the arrangements, then stick with that. In my experience, they always partner with nice hotels, so you won't be disappointed there. And the overseas flight booking/scheduling will be less stressful imo if you book it via Disney. Booking flights via DCL, you'll get choices of times, dates, carriers & prices, and get to choose what works for you.

 

[DisneyConvert]

We always do our own booking as we live near EWR and my wife is magical with getting flights, plus has minor elite status w. United and now "Titanium" with Marriott.

One rule we have learned painfully, repeatedly, is "Do one's sightseeing/touring in a foreign city FIRST, before the cruise."
a. Gives one the "buffer" in case flights are delayed so missing the cruise is not relevant.
b. Post-DCL, we are so relaxed and happy, we want to be floated to our airplane and then home. NOT the time to gear up to see a new city (which we've done thrice, but less fun).

 

[ladyofthetramp]

Our first venture overseas will be next summer with DCL. I can tell you that my experience with DCL Air, so far, has been a positive one. Choice of flights, times from their gateway city near us (which is Boston), price very good and the peace of mind that if something goes wrong, they will be helping us get to the ship. The hotels pre-cruise I booked myself. The DCL offerings were amazing, but very expensive. For two people I might have done it, but for a family of 4, needing 2 rooms, it was cost prohibitive. I did a bunch of research and read reviews. My fingers are crossed that it will all work out as far as our pre-cruise stay is concerned. So we mixed it up a bit for our first trip.

 

[fredandkell]

I haven’t done it personally but I’ve heard good things about DCL’s pricing for trans-Atlantic flights.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

For the 2 times that we have cruised Europe with DCL, I have booked my own flights, but have booked pre-hotel stays through DCL. We also took advantage of the bus ride from the hotel to the port where our luggage was picked up from our hotel room and taken to the ship. W.e were very happy with our decisions

 

[tlprice]

I have done Port Canaveral, San Juan, Dover, Barcelona, Civitavecchia, and New York. I have not done any DCL airfare or hotels. I have done DCL transportation to port in Port Canaveral and Dover. I usually use air miles for some or all of my flights so that doesn't work through Disney. I also like to stay in unique hotels in specific locations usually, so I like booking that myself. Transportation is based on what works for our particular situation at that port. I have to say, in London we took DCL transportation from one of the DCL hotels, but did not stay at that hotel. I am so glad we didn't. The hotel I chose was SO much nicer, a lot less expensive, and in a much better area. I also don't mind researching and finding what works best for us. Some people would prefer not to do that and just go with the ease of DCL doing it all.

 

[disneyholic family]

we booked everything on our own for our DCL western europe cruise this past july....(from barcelona to dover)..
we arrived 3 days early (thursday for a sunday cruise) and it was perfect..
no worries about missing the cruise and just enough time to really enjoy barcelona...
booking the flights was easy.....as was the rest of it...
europe is very tourist friendly..
but if you'd rather do it through DCL, that works too..
it's definitely worth paying extra for convenience..
.

 

[kiford]

We booked hotels and transfers through DCL. So much less work and they've already vetted the hotel. I know that they'll go a good job of selecting a hotel that I'll like so why do it myself. But flights we book ourselves. When flying overseas, we usually go business class and are sometimes able to use points. It allows me to select the specific flight time and day that I want as well as the plane configuration I'd prefer if possible. We also will sometimes want to come a few days early or stay a few days later or go see family either before or after in Germany. If we do stay or arrive earlier, we might book tours through an independent group but other than that and flights, we book everything through DCL.

 

[Karin1984]

it's like a ready made meal or cooking from scratch:
- Ready made meal is usually a bit more expensive, but all you need to do is put it in the microwave.
- Cooking from scratch, cheaper, but more effort, however it will be exactly to your liking.

If you are low maintenance on what you are looking for in a hotel and flights etc. let someone else arrange it and pay for the convenience. If you have very specific requests, I would handle it myself.

 

[starvenger]

We are frequent Disney cruisers, but only once have cruised to Europe and it was with family. Next year we have two cruises out of the U.S. and would appreciate opinions on going entirely through Disney or doing it on our own. We are seniors and I personally would prefer to let DCL arrange everything.

Your preferences seems to dictate letting DCL (or a TA) arrange things for you. Doesn't sound like you'll be happy if you have to handle things yourself.

 

[faiday]

we booked everything on our own for our DCL western europe cruise this past july....(from barcelona to dover)..
we arrived 3 days early (thursday for a sunday cruise) and it was perfect..
no worries about missing the cruise and just enough time to really enjoy barcelona...
booking the flights was easy.....as was the rest of it...
europe is very tourist friendly..
but if you'd rather do it through DCL, that works too..
it's definitely worth paying extra for convenience..
.

HI- I HAVE so many questions. Where did you stay in Barcelona? What did you do in Barcelona? Assuming you don't live in Europe, did you get a round trip flight or multi flight?

 

[disneyholic family]

HI- I HAVE so many questions. Where did you stay in Barcelona? What did you do in Barcelona? Assuming you don't live in Europe, did you get a round trip flight or multi flight?

picking a place to stay was so much pressure for me!!
it's not necessarily difficult, but we were a group of 9 (3 families: my husband and me, our daughter and son in law, our son, daughter in law and their 3 toddlers under the age of 5)..

Since we were going to be there for 3 days, i wanted to have a full kitchen for the sake of the toddlers.

I also didn't want an apartment from airbnb, as my daughter did that in barcelona a few years prior and really didn't like the place she stayed.

So i searched for a hotel that had full apartment suites.

I found a few. One of them had absolutely rave reviews (on trip advisor). Not even one single bad review.

So i booked us into two 2-bedroom suites.
Each one had a living room, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a full kitchen, washer/dryer.
And a pool on the roof as well.

But i was sooooooooo worried leading up to our trip.
I so much didn't want to disappoint anyone.

It turned out to be fantastic!!!!! Beyond fantastic really.
The apartments were immaculately clean. As clean as i've ever seen any place ever, including my own house.

They're beautifully designed, modern bathrooms, and on and on. And clean clean clean.

Also really well located. It's about a 5 minute walk to the ramblas, but on a very quiet street.
And there's a good grocery store across the street so we were able to buy lots of stuff there (i even bought a pot there so i could make pasta for everyone one of the nights).
We bought water, soft drinks, cereal, milk, ice cream (ben & jerrys), tons of excellent fresh fruit, etc etc.

Obviously we ate out as well, but being able to eat some of the meals in the room was great, especially for the toddlers, though not only for them.

The apartment hotel is called the Midtown Apartments.
Here's the link to their website.
https://www.midtownapartments-barcelona.com/en/
I should add that they're very expensive, but so are other hotels in barcelona and in this case you're getting a full apartment plus a pool on the roof.
We did use the pool. The toddlers especially enjoyed it.

Suffice to say, we were all really pleased with the place. What a relief for me!! LOL..

As for flights, we live in Israel, so the flights are pretty cheap for us.
I just booked them online for all 9 of us.
I have a preferred airline, so i didn't shop around, but there are plenty of deals you can find if you search on one of the flight search engines (like kayak.com)

as for round trip vs multi-city, we did a multi-city flight as we flew into barcelona and out of paris.
it actually was cheaper than the round trip, but that's not why i did it.
That's where we were, so that's where i had to fly us in and out of.

Our trip was as follows:
- Fly into barcelona on thursday
- Barcelona from thursday to sunday
- board the disney magic in barcelona on sunday
- 7 nights on the disney magic from barcelona to dover england (a repositioning cruise taking the ship from barcelona to dover)
- transfer by private mini-bus from the port of dover to the nearest eurostar train station (ashford international train station)
- Eurostar train direct from ashford to Disneyland Paris
- 4 nights at disneyland paris
- fly from paris back home on thursday night (exactly 2 weeks after arriving in barcelona)

i prebooked all of our transfers with private transportation companies.
Since we were a group of 9, i didn't want to have to depend on trying to get us into taxis.
i was very happy with all the transfer companies i used, so if you want the information, i'll be happy to give you all the names and contacts.
I used private transfers in barcelona from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the cruise terminal.
Also in dover to take us from the ship to the eurostar train station.
And in Paris, to take us from DLP to the airport in paris.

As i said, i was very happy with all 3 companies.

inside barcelona we mostly walked.
But when we needed a taxi, we used a taxi app. (not uber/lyft, an app to get a regular taxi).
it was very useful, as for more than 4 people, you need to request a larger car - that can be done in the app.
the hotel receptionist told us about the app, so we downloaded it that first day we were there.
I'll ask the family what the name of that app is.

what else?

in barcelona, we went to the aquarium on friday morning.
I'd read mixed reviews on trip advisor, but our 5 year old grandson adores aquariums, so it was a must.
As it turned out, we all very much enjoyed the aquarium and i can't understand why it gets mixed reviews.
It was really a nice way to spend a few hours, especially if you have kids who like aquariums.

I've also heard from lots of people that the science center is excellent.
We didn't have time to also go there (it's a bit of a drive from what i heard), but next time we definitely will.

on Friday afternoon, we had a tour with a private tour guide.
It was OUTSTANDING!!!!!
it was geared to families with toddlers (he also does a tour for older kids, but we had toddlers so that's the one we picked).
He does a non-private one doing the same thing, but we hired him just for our group.
He's very clever. He keeps the toddlers entertained while he's also taking the adults on a tour.
It's really well done.
it's a walking tour of the old town of barcelona, but into places that i don't think you'd ever know to go into on your own.
And including some tastings along the way (candy and chocolate to match our group and ending with ice cream).

I have to get his details from my daughter if you're interested.

On saturday we just went swimming and out to eat, but my daughter and son in law took a bike tour that gets rave reviews on trip advisor. It turned out to be a complete disaster.
So it goes to show you how difficult it is to trust what you read.

but the walking tour that we loved so much also gets great reviews and in that case they were accurate, so you never know.

the truth is, i think that walking tour was what sealed the deal for us. We fell in love with barcelona as a result of that tour!!
before we left, i was sure we were just going to have to put up with barcelona so that we could get on the ship, which was after all the entire reason for our trip.

oh i didn't explain that. Our entire reason for the trip was to cruise on the disney magic.
We are disneyholics (not surprising given my board name).
When we lived in the US, we went to WDW 2 or 3 times a year, for 2 weeks each time.

Then we moved to Israel. We continued to go to WDW about once a year, for 3 weeks at a time.

Then our kids married. Since then, we've been taking the entire family about every 6 years (we all went in 2011, then again in 2017).
Our next trip was planned for 2022, but in the interim i had the bad fortune of being diagnosed with cancer (december 2017)
the moment i began treatment (january 2018) i started planning this trip.
I needed it as a goal - something to look forward to as i made my journey through those fun times (chemo, surgery, radiation, more chemo)

But the trip couldn't be to WDW, since my son didn't want to have to fly the 15+ hours it takes us to get to florida with his 2 toddlers and 1 infant.

So i came up with the idea of getting us our disney fix by taking a cruise on the disney magic when she's in europe.

so for a year and a half i planned this trip to the disney magic.
It wasn't a trip to europe for us.
it was something disney that wasn't too far away to get to.

And then since we were already in europe for the magic, i figured we could add on DLP and give it a second chance (we were there 19 years ago and were less than thrilled by it).

so that was the trip - disney magic and DLP. Not europe.
barcelona was just to get to the ship. And we didn't even set foot in paris itself, just DLP.

oh i should add that we enjoyed riding the eurostar.
Very clean and efficient.
I purchased first class seats (not much more than the regular).
they included a meal served at your seat - in our case it was breakfast and a surprisingly tasty breakfast it was.
definitely worth the small additional cost for the tickets (plus the seats are better).
plus i wanted to be sure we'd have good seats given that we were boarding in ashford, not london (most everyone boards in london).
.

i don't know how much help this was.

I'll post the names of the airport/cruise transfer companies. I have to look them up.

.

 

[kiford]

HI- I HAVE so many questions. Where did you stay in Barcelona? What did you do in Barcelona? Assuming you don't live in Europe, did you get a round trip flight or multi flight?

On our first cruise, we stayed only one night in Barcelona in advance of the cruise, booked through DCL at their hotel selection (Le Meridien on Las Ramblas). We just walked around that first day up and down Las Ramblas and down to the port (not the cruise port - just a little farther along) where they had shops and restaurants. Spent some time drinking sangria and relaxing there and walked back. DCL transfers the next morning. That trip we flew Toronto-Barcelona and after the cruise Barcelona-Munich to visit family and then Munich-Toronto. Toronto-Barcelona and Munich-Toronto were booked on one ticket as a multi-city flight. We tried buying a one-way ticket for Barcelona-Munich but the price was insane (more than double a round trip ticket which makes no sense but that's what they do) so we purchased a roundtrip ticket Barcelona-Munich and only used the first leg.

Second Med cruise, we flew Toronto-Munich to visit family and then Munich to Barcelona and stayed one night in Barcelona in advance of the cruise, booked through DCL at their hotel selection (Diagonal del Mar). We didn't go out - there wasn't much in that area but the pool was on the roof along with a bar so we spent some time up there. Great views but we were too tired to go anywhere. Fantastic dinner at the hotel restaurant (best ribeye steak I've ever had). After the cruise, we stayed 3 nights at DCL's hotel selection (Renaissance International that time) and booked two tours through Viator but the arrival day we just walked around (we were close enough to walk back to Le Meridien where we'd stayed the first time to go to their restaurant Cent-Onze which we loved). One tour was a small group food and wine tour in areas around but outside Barcelona and one was a day-long tour through Barcelona. We went back to Cent-Onze for lunch (we had 2 hours on our own) on that latter tour. We then flew Barcelona-Toronto. We booked Toronto-Munich and Barcelona-Toronto as a multi-city flight and booked Munich-Barcelona as a separate flight. That latter flight was a roundtrip flight but we only used one leg because we were using points and it wouldn't let us book one-way. As with the previous time, we tried buying a one-way ticket but it was more than double the price of a roundtrip so we just booked the roundtrip with points and only flew the first leg.